


Call Sign

by spikewriter



Series: A Symphony of Ten [14]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-14
Updated: 2014-12-14
Packaged: 2018-03-01 07:33:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2764931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spikewriter/pseuds/spikewriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor and Torchwood? Not mixy things</p>
            </blockquote>





	Call Sign

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for Day Fourteen of my 2009 Advent Calendar on LiveJournal. Edited for posting here.

“ _What_ did Jake just call you?”

Rose was beginning to believe that convincing the Doctor to work with Torchwood had not necessarily been the wisest move. Sure, his vast knowledge of the universe and other species was invaluable, even if there were some differences between his original universe and this one. And, yes, they’d been a great team when they were rattling around the universe in the TARDIS – but that didn’t mean the Doctor actually understood the concept of being a “team player.”

“It’s my call sign,” she said with a sigh. “I didn’t pick it. Ryan gave it to me when he was team leader. We all have call signs, Doctor; even you.” _Not that I’ll ever be able to convince you to use it._ “It’s part of our field procedure. If nothing else, keeps folks from catching on immediately that ‘Rose Tyler, Vitex heiress’ is running around hunting aliens. Do you really want the tabs coming after us?”

He grumbled a bit in reply, but then headed immediately back to his first complaint. “But why ‘Big Bad Wolf’? Why, of all the things in the universe, did they choose that?”

“They originally called me ‘Red Riding Hood’ but then I, ah, kicked down a door and threatened to blow an alien to kingdom come.”

She was never comfortable telling him those things because she knew how her other Doctor would have reacted. This one, however, merely lifted an eyebrow. “Did they deserve it?”

“Holding three kids hostage and about to eat their livers, so, yeah, they deserved it.”

“Good for you. And Ryan decided you were more like the Big Bad Wolf than a helpless little girl who needed protection.”

“Yup. That pretty much sums it up.”

The Doctor just shook his head. “I am not calling you Bad Wolf. There’s power in words and I’m not tempting fate with that one.”

They tramped on a little further across the field, keeping an eye out for anything unusual that might help in their investigation. “I have a call sign?” he asked after a few minutes.

Damn. She was hoping he’d forget that bit. “You do.”

“So, what is it? Einstein? No, that’s too obvious? Egg Head? No…”

The radio crackled to life, with Jake’s voice coming through. _“Big Bad Wolf, is Humpty Dumpty with you?”_

“We’re both here, Jack Sprat. What’s up?”

_“I think we found something over in the south field. We need him to take a look at it.”_

“On our way. Big Bad Wolf out.”

She turned to find the Doctor staring wide-eyed at her. “My call sign is what?”

“Well, it’s in keeping with the rest of the call signs and he is an egg head.”

As the Doctor squawked all the way over toward the south field, Rose reflected that maybe it was time to stop using fairy tale names for call signs.


End file.
